Patty Hearst

Imagine if "All the Money in the World" was actually good and trying to say anything at all

It handles the really delicate question of whether Hearst was brainwashed or a willing participant by suggesting that perhaps there is no distinction. Richardson plays Hearst as someone who is smart, but not very forceful and is almost not quite there at most times. She's motivated by ending her ordeal, but also strongly driven to conform. The ease with which a privileged young woman with a Catholic upbringing could become a Marxist urban terrorist is ... fascinating.

Viewed March 16, 2020. Interesting to see how Schrader applies his subterranean aesthetic and psychological interiority towards this particular subject, but it's so dramatically unsatisfying and feels muddled in every respect.

(Viewed in 2014): An admirable but ultimately unsuccessful take on an unusual subject, P.H passes the time, but it's certainly no Mishima. Pinpointing why Schrader wanted to make it is a mug's game. Its cultural significance had long since passed, and it's told from the victim's perspective despite the fact that she is clearly an unreliable narrator. Is he subtly undermining her account of events through this technique? It's never really clear. All in all, it has been forgotten for a reason.